1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a spoke for joining a wheel hub to a wheel rim.
The invention also concerns a method for applying a self-adhesive film to a surface of a spoke.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to increasing traffic density, a bicycle rider's risk of injury is also increasing. Especially at night, bicycle riders and their bicycles are poorly recognized by car drivers and are easily confused with other light sources.
For this reason, there has long been a trend to make bicycle riders recognizable at night by means of reflective or luminescent parts of the bicycle. In particular, efforts have been made to make specific motional actions so apparent that the driver of a car can clearly attribute them to a bicycle rider. For this purpose, for example, pedals have been provided with reflective surfaces, which are perceived as light reflections moving up and down by a car driver approaching the bicycle rider from behind. These moving light reflections are correctly interpreted by the car driver as the pedal motions of a bicycle rider.
However, bicycle riders riding across the direction of travel of a car continue to be poorly recognized, for example, when they are riding at right angles to the direction of travel of the car at the intersection of two streets. To be sure, an approaching car driver moving transversely to the direction of travel of a bicycle rider would have to be able to notice a beam of light from the headlight that should be mounted on the bicycle. However, aside from the fact that in many cases the bicycle headlight does not operate satisfactorily, the headlight is a light source that cannot be specifically attributed to a moving bicycle. The headlight cannot be associated with the typical motions of a bicycle.
To be sure, it has already been proposed that the spokes and rims of bicycles be provided with luminescent and/or reflective coatings, and it has also already been proposed that the spokes and rims be coated with reflective films. However, it was found that the films could not be joined with the spokes and rims so durably that a permanent reflective or luminescent effect was obtained. Furthermore, legal requirements to provide spokes and rims with a reflective and/or luminescent effect were not created.